BATTLE OF KOREA: Crunching Advance

The Peking radio admitted that Seoul
had fallen, but called it a "temporary withdrawal." General Ridgway
had been wisely unwilling to accept the casualties of a frontal attack.
Instead, he had put a bridgehead across the Han east of the capital.
When the bridgehead outflanked the Red defenders, they pulled out.

In the central mountains, the Red rearguards put up more of a fight.
When they did pull back, they left behind mines, booby traps, even
dummies to man their abandoned positions. Hongchon, Pungam and some
other towns fell to Ridgway's careful, crunching advance, which was
approaching the important Red...